Good morning, now then I promised that I would share some more tips about self belief, so here is tip number two for you.

Self belief is feeling good enough; its the feeling that you can handle whatever life, or your horse throws at you? Its about having a healthy appreciation and acknowledgement (we often forget this bit), of your abilities and talents. Its not about anything superficial.

Its about being OK with you, and OK with where you are at with your…

When things go wrong in our horse work, our horsemanship, our riding.....we begin to blame ourselves; but we also take it further.  Sometimes we can blame ourselves so much when things go wrong that we stop trying, we stop searching for an answer, we stop attempting to move forward and begin to move backwards.

This does not just affect our relationship with our horses, it starts to creep into other areas of our lives, how we see ourselves, our social interactions, our careers…

Jumping, it has the ability to thrill and to strike fear into riders, sometimes all at once!   However, if approached in a systematic and patient manner, most of the fear will dissipate allowing both you and your horse to enjoy jumping; whether it be a pop every now and then, or a trip round a course of fences weekly at a local show.

You can listen to the audio lesson over on the original blog post …

Developing your riding seat begins with understanding that your seat must be used to signal to your horse, not interfere or disrupt his natural movement.  In order for you to utilize this aid successfully, it is imperative that you be relaxed first.  Relaxation is not floppiness, it is just an awareness of your body and how you are using it without any tension or resistance through your muscles.

The problem and confusion over developing your riding seat often begins right at…

 No argument there  - although our behavior is only strange to Non horsey people

Have you ever wondered just How Many “Strange” people are out there and if we are all in some way connected.

Lets do the;  Six Degrees of Seperation Experiment

To see…

Written by:  Equine Advocates,  reprinted with permission

Originally published here - Children's Summer Camp Season – Please Choose Programs That Do Not Discard Horses And…

More importantly, how do you know if your horse is falling in?  The quickest and easiest way I can explain this is to imagine you are riding a circle which you have planned out beautifully in your head; but as your horse travels around it you seem to be getting more and more off track with each passing stride; in fact what started out as a 20m circle is soon resembling a 10m triangle, drawn by a three year old...

Or another area this where problem can tend to rear its ugly…

When planning your boarding barn, you will want to take measures to set your barn apart from other boarding facilities. If you’re opting to provide horses with the ultimate in care, safety, and luxury in your high-performance boarding barn, then consider adding the following amenities to your plans.

Stable-ity Grids

Mud is a frequent…

Is there a more frustrating and exhausting experience when riding to match that of being on a horse who is not paying you a blind bit of notice?!

You are on board kicking and pumping away, while you horse is just meandering along...  Ignoring you completely and acting as though he is on a relaxing Sunday outing.

This week on Daily Strides we are focusing on helping you overcome the inertia and begin getting some movement happening underneath you, by…

Grooming your horse - chore or something to look forward to?

I have always loved to groom horses. There is just something wonderful about feeling that you are doing something good, right here and now, for the horse in question - whether your own or any horse for that matter.

Horses are so beautifully able…

Rescuing a horse is a noble cause, and it seems that there is always a horse in desperate need of a good home. But before you agree to rescue a horse, it is important to consider whether you are really ready to take on a rescue. Below are just a few of the resources that you will want to have before you consider taking on a rescue horse.

Adequate Barn…

Ride Like You've Never Been Thrown

Part Four

True Grit

I have named this final segment ‘True Grit’ as I believe that this woman is the epitome of the term. She is strong minded and even stronger willed. She was competing at Congress before…

This month on Equine Business Coaching we are all about figuring out where, how and on what should we be investing our time on a day to day basis in order to see the best return on your most precious asset, time, in your business.

Streamlining your schedule is often one of the most difficult things we can tackle related to our productivity, however figuring out a workflow and routine that supports all the necessary ‘maintenance’ items in your business, while at the same…

Leg yielding is generally most riders first introduction to lateral movement; lateral meaning sideways.   This weeks audio horse riding lessons aim to not only explain leg yielding to you in easy to understand terms, but also to give you some nice exercises you can use while riding your horse to begin working his muscles and joints in a different, and beneficial way.

At the beginning of the podcast this week I mention that leg yielding and, quite frankly, riding…

FIDGETING AND HEAD TOSSER

You got a horse that is not comfortable, always fidgeting and tossing its head? Can't figure out why? Well, before you go through an endless series of bits, thinking it's the bit, get a thermal image of the poll, shoulder/neck and head. You'll know instantly if there is an inflamed area, where it is and possibly…

One of the things that a lot of Daily Strides listeners have in common is the fact that the time they have to devote to riding and improving their riding skills, is generally in short supply… And rides can become something that are squeezed in between the million other things we have going on in our lives.

In times like this, when we are riding, we are set out looking to achieve an active, working trot… But due to lots of different factors, this can end up just…